-Live Mint   Despite its importance, reform of India's legal institutions has been seen as a ‘second order' issue India is a young nation long ruled by old laws-its police, for example, are governed by such colonial-era statutes as the Police Act of 1861, which predates independence by nearly a century. And its expanding economy requires forward-looking regulatory mechanisms to foster markets while curbing crony capitalism. India is also a nation that must...

-The Business Standard   Higher judiciary has not addressed the delays in India's courts Continuing what will be a year of quick personnel changes for the higher judiciary, a new chief justice of India, R M Lodha, has taken office. Justice Lodha will have only a five-month tenure. It will be difficult for him to introduce any far-reaching reform in this period. His initial speech after being sworn in must have been written...

-Outlook Over two crore cases are pending in subordinate courts in the country which also face a shortage of over 3,000 judicial personnel, a Parliamentary Committee has observed. It termed the high rate of pending cases in subordinate courts in the country a "serious matter". "The Department of Justice (in the Law Ministry) informed that as on March 31 (last year) 2,68,51,766 cases were pending in subordinate courts. "Some of the major reasons for...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: The number of judges in high courts across the country is set to increase by about 25%, with the Centre writing to all chief justices and chief ministers informing them of the decision and seeking their views on additional infrastructure and support staff. As per a demi-official letter from union law minister Kapil Sibal dated January 16, the number of judges in the Allahabad high court will...

Research by the Asian Centre for Human Rights, released on 18 September 2013, provides renewed evidence of marginalisation of Scheduled Tribes (STs) or adivasis in government employment, and in fact suggests that such exclusion is growing in some areas despite policies of reservation. (The entire report can be accessed here). Until May 2013, the number of backlog adivasi vacancies with the Central Government was 12,195 posts. Breaking up these figures...